When FDR was just entering politics as a young man, he met an elderly gentleman who, as a youth, had heard Andrew Jackson speak.
I'm noting a lot of comparisons here, besides the obvious one of comparing "Jackson and Reform" to "Make America Great Again," or the fact that both men spoke to their audiences at a third grade level.
In the 1820s, large portions of this country were illiterate or just literate enough to read the Bible, preferring memorization to actual reading. Compulsory education was mostly a product of the Progressive Movement after the Civil War. Today large portions of America are barely literate because the public school system has for several generations deliberately educated Americans to think like serfs looking to government as their lord, rather than thinking critically like free citizens.
This article deserves more attention than it is getting because it cuts so close to the bone.
Rush put this differently the other day. Trump speaks in code that all Americans understand. “Make America Great Again” means winning, means making the American economy grow, means rebuilding the middle class. You don’t need a 10 point plan on how to do that, because results are all that matter anyway.
If you’re a football coach and your plan is to run the ball, but they put nine men in the box, your first play better be a play fake bomb. Trump’s language is American victory, American greatness. Who else is talking about that? With Rubio, it’s all about “I’m going to add this carrier group and this fighter wing.” Even Cruz gets bogged down into the “10 things he’ll do” his first day in office. All well and good-—and I approve of them-—but to the guy on the street, he’ll say, “And how is my life going to be better?” Well, tell him THAT to start. Why bother with the details that will change along the way.